City officials couldn't say when the site would be up or what the deadline would be extended to after they pulled the plug on the website Wednesday due to higher-than-expected web traffic.

Typically, the city's website has about 230 concurrent users, according to Mayor Charlie Hales' office. On Wednesday, however, the city experienced a crush of users who had waited until the last day to file their arts tax return. All told, the city was seeing double the amount of typical traffic on the arts tax website alone.

The one saving grace in all of this: Residents who weren't able to pay online before the deadline yesterday won't have to worry about late fees. Initially, the city planned to charge stragglers an extra $15.

Hales' spokesman Dana Haynes said city officials would wait until the system was back online before setting a new payment deadline.

"When the system is back up then we'll huddle again," he said. "We understand this is our problem, our fault."

As for when the system might be back up, there was no telling. Haynes couldn't say whether it would be a matter of hours, days or weeks. He did note that technicians had been at work on the problem late Wednesday and early Thursday.

This is just the latest in a series of embarrassing mishaps for the city in administering the arts tax.

The deadline was already extended once after the mayor's office asked the City Council to create a $1,000 income floor so those with low-paying jobs living in households above the poverty level wouldn't have to pay the tax.

Later, the city also faced heat over confusion about whether the city could tax social security
income. That question led to a clumsy reversal and a promise of future refunds.

There's also the matter of a court case arguing the tax may be unconstitutional.

All together, this has put schools in the difficult position of not knowing just how much funding they may receive. It's also threatened the overall income; the social security change alone could cost the city
$750,000.

In addition to those problems, Hales has asked the Revenue Bureau to suggest some possible changes to the tax that would make it more equitable. The City Council is expecting that report by the end of July.